Cerulean Lights
by Jiko Teima
Summary: Sparks of change are flowing, sparks of cerulean blue. Dib's world is turned upside down and people he once had faith in can no longer be trusted. Who will he turn to? [DISCONTINUED]
1. Strong, Unbreakable Thirteen

(Obligatory Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. I wish I did, but I don't. They belong to Viacom, Jhonen, etc…)

Dib shut the door quietly when he came home from Mid L skool that day, not out of courtesy of everyone else in the house, but because he did not want his family or anyone else really to see him; not like this. He shook his head violently, partly to shake the rain from his hair but mostly out of frustration.

Tears were stuck in his eyes, but none would flow down his face. Dib would not allow it, for he was thirteen now, and thirteen-year-old boys do not cry over such ridiculous things as bruises. There was something that hurt him even more than the cuts and scrapes that littered his face though. It hurt even more than the royal purple ring around his right eye.

It was the monsters that surrounded him daily, and for a change he didn't mean Bigfoots or vampires or even aliens. It was his peers who watched his torment and said nothing. There was not a helping hand from grace as he fell hard against the cement outside of the skool.

Dib racked his brain, trying desperately to remember the name of his executioner. He remembered violent red hair, nearly the color of blood. Perhaps it _was_ blood; maybe it was his own blood littering this boy's hair. The color did not matter so much, because Dib knew that he wasn't human. He couldn't have been human, acting the way he did.

" Monster…you're a monster…"

Not a soul had heard his weak protests. Instead, they allowed the schoolyard bully to continue the pummeling. Dib couldn't even remember why the kid felt he needed to be punished in the first place. All he knew was that it hurt now and would probably hurt for a while afterward.

When he moved he could feel his jacket hanging awkwardly, but he couldn't bring himself to see if it had been damaged. It would only break him down into little pieces again. His backpack crashed to the ground by the door with a sickening crunch that probably broke a binder or two. Dib cringed, remembering that his glasses had crunched the same way and that in order to get home he had to wear them with the lenses cracked and a broken frame and bits of glass missing.

He felt like someone had rammed a bulldozer into his head over and over and over again. It was difficult to form coherent thoughts because of pain of all kinds. Dib had to force himself to the stairs, because he wanted desperately to collapse right then and there and sob until no more tears would flow from his eyes. He refused though, because he was strong, and he was unbreakable, and he was thirteen and thirteen-year-old boys don't cry over things like this.

Each step up the stairs was painful, but he would not look to see if his legs had been cut. It was mostly mental exhaustion anyhow and the pains of betrayal. It was days like these that made him almost forget why he was trying to save these people anyway.

He had started seventh grade that year. Things were supposed to change then. His peers were supposed to get smarter and more observant. They were supposed to stop and realize that Zim hadn't changed at all since fourth grade and that Dib must have been right. They were supposed to remember that Dib was a human being too, and not something that deserved to be tortured this way.

Things did change though. The boys were getting stronger and the girls were turning from Marys to Madonnas. Somehow Dib had gone from just the weird kid in class to the skool punching bag. Even _Zim_ was more accepted than he was. It was a horrible irony that killed him alone, and only alone because he had to stay strong for everyone he needed to keep safe.

It was only then that he realized that he infact, was alone in his house at that moment. His dad was at his lab across town and he had no idea where Gaz was, since no one ever bothered to leave notes for him. It was a rather discouraging thought, as he dragged himself to the bathroom to inspect his injuries.

Looking in the mirror he sighed. As he had feared, his glasses were far beyond repair with their broken lenses and twisted frame. Dib saw for the first time the wounds he had received, the scrapes, the bruises, and the cuts that were still bleeding. Somehow, seeing them made them sting even more.

Carefully, so he wouldn't get shards in his eyes, Dib removed his glasses. Setting them on the counter, he wiped the tears from his eyes and the blood from his face. He was a mess and he knew he was a mess and the world's savior couldn't be a mess like this. When the salty water flowed to a stop, he peered into the mirror at his red face and immediately noticed something strange.

Dib could see himself clearly. He rubbed his eyes again and stared. He was farsighted, he shouldn't be able to see any of the things close to him and yet there they were, clear as a bell. This strange phenomena almost numbed the pain away as he struggled to find any kind of explanation. He was rather quick to blame Zim, since Zim was usually to blame for everything in his life.

That didn't make sense though…why would Zim do something to _help_ him? Dib tried as hard as he could to find another answer, and yet no answers would come. He couldn't just accept it as some kind of blessing, because he was never blessed in any way. Extremely good things never really happened to Dib, so this made him suspicious.

Eventually Dib came to find that he could not focus on the matters at hand. He was far too tired for such mind-boggling things. His thoughts kept drifting back to the day's events instead of why he could see his hand in front of his face.

His brain argued that thirteen-year-olds didn't take naps, but this particular thirteen-year-old didn't care. Dib was exhausted and if he didn't sleep now he would be falling asleep in his supper tonight. It was their annual family night out, so he would be forced to attend. Personally, Dib felt that if his dad couldn't be bothered to be around most of the time, then he shouldn't bother dragging them out to dinner once a year. It usually interfered with his paranormal studies any way.

This evening he was not in the mood for otherworldly things as he headed for his room. Dib laid down, not bothering to change out of his torn clothes or get under the covers at all. He told himself he was going to simply rest his eyes, but wound up falling into a deep, well-deserved sleep.

Carelessly, he rolled over in his slumber and let his hand gently touch a metal bedpost. With just that simple touch, blue sparks danced between the pole and his hand, blue sparks that would change Dib's world entirely.

(A/N: I'm baaaack. XD Incase anyone's wondering, I hit 23,608 words for NaNoWriMo. Now that that's over though, I'm back here like I said I'd be. : ) So how do you like it? Please R&R and I'll get the next chapter up soon. : ) )


	2. Son

Family night always seemed to fall on the most inconvenient nights in Dib's house. It was almost always the night he _needed_ to spy on Zim or the night he _needed_ to piece his footage together for his third video to Mysterious Mysteries that week. On this particular night though, Dib was simply exhausted from the day's events.

He was awakened by the threatening pounding against his door. It was such a hard beating that his jar of haunted gummi bears crashed to the floor, though luckily not releasing the tortured souls within.

" Come on Dib!" Gaz yelled, not appreciating his locked door. " Stop spying on Zim and get out here so we can go eat!"

Once he had woken up a little, Dib felt a pang of annoyance at her words. Gaz and his father probably assumed that he was off being crazy, instead of that something was actually wrong. Dib doubted they would care if they knew. He sighed loudly, hoping someone might.

" Give me a couple of minutes!" he shouted back to her.

" You've got one," she hissed.

Dib reached out for his glasses on the bedside table, but when he realized they weren't there he sat up, remembering the events from only a few hours earlier. He could see, and he could see _clearly_. It felt strange not having the weight from his glasses on his face. Remembering his sister's angry words, he changed rather quickly out of his torn garments and into better clothes. He knew his father would be angry that he had ruined yet another outfit with blood and scratches and the later he found that out the better.

Just as Gaz was impatiently about to kick the door open and storm the room, Dib strolled out. She raised an eyebrow for reasons Dib couldn't quite explain.

" You look like crap," Gaz said, the closest to concern she would tread to, "and don't you need your glasses?"

"…Broken," he breathed softly, answering all of hr questions with one word.

Gaz nodded and followed him down the stairs to where their father was waiting in his chair, the chair Dib refused to sit on in some kind of passive rebellion. Dib couldn't say he wanted to be anywhere near his father at this point in his life. He was always trying to impress him and always trying to convince him that his interests were valid studies and his father never cared. So eventually Dib stopped associating with him all together.

It worked every day except the annual family dinner, where we go out to a restaurant and pretend that we're not a dysfunctional family. After all, what would his father's fans think if they knew their fabulous hero Professor Membrane didn't _really_ care about his kids?

" Ah Gaz!" He said with false enthusiasm, " I see you found your brother!"

Dib waved just a little and looked away from him. Maybe he could get away with not talking to his dad at all. It hadn't worked the previous year, but it was worth a shot again.

" Now Son," Professor Membrane said, " It's your turn to pick where we go out to EAT! Commence your choosing…NOW!"

"Son" was a word Dib had grown to hate, because it always replaced his name. He wondered vaguely if his father even remembered his given name, or if he would be "Son" for the rest of his life.

Dib shrugged to the question though, but when he looked at his father he sighed. His father obviously wanted a response to that question.

" I don't really car-"

No sooner than when the words had poured from his mouth, Gaz pounced, taking the opportunity for herself.

" Bloaty's." She snapped, " We need to eat at BLOATY'S."

" Bloaty's it is then!" Professor Membrane declared loudly.

Dib sighed. There was no chance of him getting in a word edgewise. He had never particularly cared for Bloaty's, but it seemed to be one of the few places they ever went, since Gaz loved pizza so much. Dib never really saw the appeal of horrifyingly fake mechanical animals, even if they did scare Zim. The place was full of screaming children and was the epitome of everything that was wrong with the world he resided in.

Yet still, he somehow found himself at Bloaty's listening to the kids yelling as loud as they possibly could, or at least trying not to. His father was feeding instructions to a floating screen of his fellow scientist, Simon, swearing to God he'd be back on the hour. Next to him, Gaz was wolfing down her pizza as though she had been starved and neglected when only the later was true.

Dib stared down at his plate, wondering if the food was even sanitary. Mostly though, he wasn't hungry at all. He knew that he needed to eat something though, because he hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch that day. There hadn't been any cereal left in the cupboard that morning and the food at the Mid L skool was even more questionable than in elementary skool. It was a strange feeling though, being full on an empty stomach.

Professor Membrane glanced over at his son just for a moment. Something suddenly clicked in his mind, something that should have clicked several moments prior.

" Excuse me a moment Simon," He pushed aside the floating monitor and stared at his son for a long moment.

The subject in question looked up when he felt his father's eyes on him. Dib gave him a bored glance, wishing that he was anywhere but with his father.

" Son," Professor Membrane addressed him the only way he knew how it seemed, " what happened to your glasses? Did you break them again?"

Dib's eyes widened, for there were other things on his mind than his sudden visionary improvements. He had forgotten all about it and was surprised that his father even noticed at all.

" Don't need them," He said simply, looking back down at his pizza, watching the grease boil.

" Don't speak such nonsense Son!" his father chuckled, " You're nearly blind without those things!"

" You don't understand," Dib said, speaking the truth of every interaction with his father. " I don't _need_ them. I can see fine without them."

Dib sipped his soda and could have sworn he heard a soft crackling. He didn't think much about it though, as he waited for his brilliant father to try and find a solution to his miracle.

His father was thinking very hard indeed. He was quiet for several moments, concentrating deeply on the problem and tapping his fingers rapidly against the table. There was no solution that was beyond the infamous Professor Membrane.

Dib looked down again, only to discover that his piece of pizza was mysteriously gone from his plate. He looked over at Gaz, who showed no remorse as she bit into his slice.

Feeling rather defeated somehow, he reached out to grab a second slice, the only slice left. When his hand brushed against the metal tray however, there was a spark. It was a blue spark, a light cerulean blue that illuminated their faces. There was not a soul at that table who could ignore the sharp sparks that broke the silence.

Slowly, mesmerized by the powerful light, Dib pulled his hand away and stared in awe at it, as though it would spark again without a moment's notice.

" What was that?" He whispered softly, examining his fingers.

Gaz raised an eyebrow at her brother's strangeness and returned her attention to her precious pizza. His father however, was grinning broadly. His goggles glinted in the light of the welfare lamp that hung over the table. The glance made Dib uneasy, and something in his stomach seemed to boil.

" It works," his words were hushed and quiet. " I don't believe it. It works."

Dib's eyes widened, a sudden fear filling him. There was something instinctively wrong with this conversation but he couldn't tell just what it was.

" W-what works?" He asked tentatively.

" You!" Professor Membrane rubbed his hands together excitedly, " I don't believe it, the only project I ever failed on actually works! I knew I could never fail!"

Dib was as white as a snowy ghost. There were so many thoughts dashing through his mind that it began to spin in twisted circles. They were thoughts that hurt his head and made him want to cry and scream and break things. By some miracle though, he suppressed these emotions enough to calmly through out a few words.

" You…you what?" Dib asked softly with wide eyes. " What did you do?"

" I created you of course!" Professor Membrane carelessly brushed it off as nothing, " The world's first energy generating creature! You create your own energy without needing to eat or sleep or anything like that. It's brilliant really."

Shaking slightly out of nervous confusion at the strange explanation, Dib openly doubted the truth.

" You didn't create me!" He shouted, " I…I mean you-you and mom you…"

To this, his father merely chuckled. His laughter was unnerving and sent frightened shivers up Dib's spine.

" No, no," His father laughed. " I created you in my likeness. When there were no immediate signs that you were anything other than a normal human boy I assumed that I had failed in my attempts."

" Why wouldn't you tell me something like that?" Dib protested loudly.

" It was never something you needed to know!" Professor Membrane's tone grew ever darker. " It was better to just give you a normal life! If nothing new was going to develop, then why even say anything?"

Dib rose up off his seat, gripping the table in anger. He laughed darkly, unaware of the light of them sparking blue.

" As though we even HAVE a normal life!" Dib shot back at his father; " You were too busy to ever give it to us!"

" Don't talk to me that way young man!" His father shook a finger in Dib's direction, downplaying his serious tone.

" Why should I? You're not my father!" Dib shouted as the blue electricity spread to other tables, making small children cry out in terror, " Apparently you're my CREATOR!"

Dib had never been so raging in his life. He couldn't even think properly because his head hurt so much. So many thoughts flowed through his mind that it was difficult to focus on just one. As his anger built higher and higher the sparks flew out from the hanging lamps and struck the horrifying mechanical animals, causing them to spark as well and eventually breakdown completely.

" Yes and you're a fabulous creation," Professor Membrane said, noting the damage Dib was subconsciously causing. " After all, you were a prototype for P.E.G. and you seem to have even surpassed her! It even seems to have corrected your vision!"

This was not something that Dib cared about. He didn't care if he was strong or if he surpassed anything. He wanted to be completely human, not some freakish chimera of man and science.

" Of course now that you work we'll need to run all sorts of test," Professor Membrane noted happily, " just to make sure you work of course. Oh this will be so great! Together you and I will become even more famous than I already am! Parents will be able to have children they never need to feed, which would make them slightly richer! Electrical plants could have free laborers that never get tired! Oh this will be so great, won't it Son?"

That last word sent Dib into a terrifying rage. He stood up on his seat, blue lightening whipping around him. Lights around them were shattering into a million pieces, phone lines died, and children cried.

" DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Dib shouted. " My name is NOT SON!"

Even Gaz couldn't help but stare in horror at the storm her brother had become. He looked nearly ten times as fierce than he ever had before. Dib was no longer harmless.

Without a second thought, he flung his arm out towards his father and blue sparks danced through his veins to his fingertips and struck Professor Membrane. His father was caught completely off guard, but managed to get an arm in front of his face to protect himself. Professor Membrane hissed as his arm burned from the cerulean heat.

Dib stopped only after a moment or so, horrified at the power he wielded at his fingertips. The blue lights that surrounded him died down as the shock of what he had done set in. He had just been filled with so much energy that it became had to control in his anger, which meant that his first raging thoughts became reality.

Professor Membrane glanced down at him arm and saw that Dib had burned right through his lab coat and singed his bare arm. It stung of course, but Professor Membrane was too giddy over what power his creation had to mind it.

It took a few minutes of silence for Dib to gain back his resolve and speak once again, even if his voice was as shaky as his hands.

" And…and I'm not just some EXPERIMENT!" He cried out. " I'm not just some toy for you!"

With those brave words, Dib shoved his sister out of the way and raced out of Bloaty's into the rainy night, weeping for the loss of his humanity and the loneliness of having no where to return to when the cold of the night sets in. No one followed him. No one dared.

Brushing himself off, Professor Membrane regained his composure very quickly and called his floating screen back over to him.

" Simon," He said in a dead serious tone as he stared out the door, " send a search team out to find my son. Have them search the entire city and once they have found him, bring him to the labs."

" You mean…?" Simon asked tentatively through a fuzzy screen.

" Yes," Professor Membrane concurred, " it works. Project E.G.O. is loose in the city."

" Right sir," Simon bowed his head, " we'll get right on it."

" See that you do," Professor Membrane said as he shut off the screen.

Professor Membrane was certain that he would have his creation back before the night was over. After all, his son had no friends and no other family. There was nowhere he could go where his scientists wouldn't find him.

Unfortunately for Professor Membrane, he was wrong once again.

(A/N: That sure was exciting, eh? Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews everyone! : ) Also, to Dibsthe1, I actually have not read that book. I'll have to make sure to read it now though. : ) On another note, I don't think any of the scientists were actually given names...so I made one up, and will probably make up many more. XD So everyone please R&R and I'll get the next chapter up as soon as possible. )


	3. The Rat's Maze

Fueled only by his anger and his sorrow, Dib ran through the dark night, splashing through puddles along the way. He ran away from everything he knew, he needed to be anywhere but there. He needed to be away from his family, away from that miserable city, away from where he was and had always been.

The rain beat down on him, both harsh and brutal. Both rain and tears blinded Dib as he pressed on through the cold night. Blue sparks shot out from his body as he ran and emotions ran wild in his mind, but he found that he could not stop for anything. No matter how tired he became, Dib's legs carried him further and further.

In only a moment's notice, the rain poured down even harder than before, and it began to sting Dib's skin. Electricity flowed through his veins like blood and every drop of water began to burn. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Dib feared that he might short circuit somehow if he stayed in the rain.

Dib didn't care about that though. If anything he liked the pain the water brought. It made him feel human in an odd way. Within the confines of his broken mind he enjoyed the singeing pain and welcomed it with open arms.

Eventually though, the mental and physical exhaustion got the better of him and he found that he needed to stop or else he would collapse. Dib ran beneath a tall oak tree and breathed heavily, desperately trying to catch his breath. His hair was matted down from the rain, but was quickly drying from the electrical current flowing through him. Once his breath had returned completely, he opened his eyes and looked around for just a moment, before shutting them again.

He was standing in the cold rain in front of his old elementary skool. It was a place that he had sworn he'd never go back to and yet there he was, his old battlefield. Some horrible memories resided both within and outside its brick walls. There was still an innocent aura surrounding the place though, seeing as it was where Dib spent his childhood.

However, thinking about memories and childhood dreams left him as weary as an old man. In some ways he felt like one, as though he were an old war veteran looking bitterly on the world he'd tried to save.

Dib didn't want to sit there crying, but he couldn't help himself as his knees gave out beneath him and he slid down against the tree trunk. The rain poured down in sheets around the tree, which had become his personal sanctuary. It drowned out his loud sobs as he cried like a child. The tears felt dirty, too dirty for a thirteen-year-old, but Dib supposed that didn't matter anymore.

" I'm…" he choked on his words while hugging his knees. " I'm not…"

There was no need to finish, because the calm rain understood. It wept beside him, bleeding its cool heart for Dib. It was not the night that was cold and dark, but the beings that hid it its shadows.

Dib wanted to remain underneath that tree forever. He wanted to stay there until the day he died and he wanted it to rain forever, so the world would know his sorrow as it flooded. He hated feeling that way though, because it wasn't the world's fault he did not belong among them. That was really the worst feeling of them all.

He wasn't human. He was _not_ human. That thought ran through his head many times, over and over like a broken record. He was some kind of animal, or even worse, some kind of monster.

Dib didn't want to be a monster. He wanted to be human and he wanted to go on saving the world. Somehow though, as he remembered his father and the way he had lashed out at him; that made him feel more like a monster than anything. He had no control at all. In just that bout of anger, his newfound abilities and fired up enough to put Bloaty's in the dark and burn his father's arm.

Every time he thought of his father though, he cried because he wasn't. Professor Membrane never was his father either. He was his creator and Dib was his creation. There was nothing more than that between them. There never had been, and now Dib knew why. He wished he had never found out. For just a moment, he wanted to be an ignorant child again. He wanted to go on saving the world from aliens, but he couldn't, because now he was an alien himself. At least, it felt that way.

Dib rubbed his eyes, as he was running out of tears to cry. The sky all but made up for that inability, pouring down its own tears of sorrow and empathy. He had grown rather tired again, as stress of any kind can be very tiring. Dib knew he needed to press on, but his legs wouldn't move. Dib found himself unable to stand at all.

If Dib didn't leave his elementary skool soon though, he would be found. Surely his father was searching for him by now. Dib didn't want to be found though. If he went with his father, he would turn into a lab rat, a _real_ animal.

Sadly, Dib found himself wondering if his father would care enough to search. Then he remembered that he was a project now, some kind of experiment. His father wouldn't want him to decay out in the rain, which made him want to destroy himself even more by running away from the skool. Somehow though, he couldn't move a muscle.

A piercing fear struck him as lightning painted the sky. If his father was searching for him now, he wondered what would happen to him. His mind raced in panic as he came with one horrible end after another, from being a lab animal to being torn apart by his father's bare hands. The thoughts left him terribly frightened, but that fear was a crutch for him to stand upon. Soon enough he was running again.

The dark fears in his heart seized him and pulled him along. The pain of the acidic rain was nearly double that of before, perhaps because he had become even more aware of it. He couldn't remain under the tree though. His father would have seen him from the road and then where would he be? He would be in a laboratory, being experimented on, or even worse dead.

Dib didn't want to be dead. He wanted to be human, he wanted his ignorance, but death was not something that soothed his weary mind. This was the main reason he found his feet pulling him off the streets and through backyards.

His fears also created a spark within him, giving him the adrenaline to keep running even when he was ready to collapse. Had he paused to notice, Dib would have seen a light, blue aura around him. There were more important things to worry about though, like evading capture. Each step pained him greatly though and climbing fences was a nightmare in itself. His monstrous likeness was chasing him down though and rest was no longer a privilege he held in his grasp.

Street after street, yard after yard, fence after painful fence he ran for his life. Dib was near out of breath and yet still he ran from the horrors that not another soul was aware of. He was blind to the scenery around him and his movements were quick and panicked like a frightened animal, like a rat in a maze. Every time he tripped or fell down he would spring to his feet and start running twice as fast.

Soon enough though, even with extra energy flowing through his blood he grew tired from the pain. His vision grew foggier and black spots appeared before his eyes in weary succession, but this did not stop him. Still Dib dragged himself further on through the rainy night, hoping that by some miracle he would make it out of the city by morning.

That miracle would never come though, as he tripped yet again after hopping another fence. Dib stumbled a moment or so, trying desperately not to fall over. The searing pain overwhelmed him though and just like that his feet gave out beneath him and he landed face down in the grass.

Dib's presence went unnoticed for several long moments. Infact, it was almost midnight by the time someone creaked open the door to gaze into their front yard. That someone was small and metallic, with big blue eyes. It shoved open the door with little force at all, an amazing for such a tiny robot.

Within the house, his precious master, Zim, had stomped into the room with a fierce glare. He looked about his pitiful excuse for a human home in disgust. He realized long ago that it was not really a good enough representation of human living, but he couldn't be bothered to change it. He reserved the right to complain though.

" GIR!" he shouted at his robot, " Shut the door! You're going to let that filthy RAIN in!"

Zim arched an antenna in curiosity when his minion disobeyed. Unbeknownst to his master however, GIR gasped and then grinned wider than a small child on Christmas.

" IT'S THE BIG-HEAD BOY!" it shrieked loudly, forcing Zim to press down both of his antennae in auditory pain.

" GIR! What are you-" Zim stopped mid rant when he noticed GIR was gone.

Zim sighed, heading for the doorway. He refused to chase out after his companion, but he did peek outside just to see if it was within eyeshot. GIR was rather like a human child in that way, if left on its own too long it would cause cars to crash in the streets and mass chaos would ensue.

GIR was in eyeshot, infact it was still in the front yard. Zim felt a twinge of annoyance watching it playing in the rain, pulling around some large thing or another.

" GIR! Get back inside!" Zim shouted, " I told you already, we don't go out in the rain!"

His robot ignored him yet again. It was humming and singing a little random song as it tugged at a body, pulling it through the mud and up the paved walk way. The creature moaned just a little, but quickly went silent.

" GIR! AS YOUR MASTER I ORDER YOU TO-" Zim began, but he paused.

GIR hoisted up the body it found to show his master. The body was sparking rapidly and in it's unconscious state it slumped over but GIR didn't seem to notice or mind. Zim's red eyes widened in recognition.

It was the Dib human.

" It's big-head boy!" GIR grinned again, " The big head boy came to play!"

With those words GIR promptly dropped Dib where he was in the rain and ran inside muttering something about a tea party. Dib moaned as he hit the cold wet pavement and began to spark once again in the water.

" What on Irk?" Zim muttered under his breath.

To his knowledge humans didn't spark, except when you put a tazer in their backs but that was a whole different situation altogether. The human boy looked hurt badly, by something other than Zim.

Zim huffed in annoyance that something else would dare try to hurt his rival. He wanted to be the one who crushed Dib. It was this and nothing else that made Zim dash out quickly into the rain and throw Dib's unconscious body into his house. That was the only reason he had for saving his foe.

What other reason would there be?

(A/N: Thank you for all of the excellent reviews! I'm sorry it took so long to get this up, but with the holidays and all…yeah. XD I hope all of you had a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah…killer Kwanzaa or whatever it is you celebrate. XD So please R&R and I'll try to update really soon.: ))


	4. Better Off This Way

Dib groaned softly as he opened his eyes. His entire body ached from the night before, though he found he could only just barely remember the details. As soon as memories flooded back into his mind however, he wished that he were sleeping again. It was no use hiding the truth from his weary mind though.

He noticed that his body was at a rather awkward angle, slumped against a wall. While he couldn't name a specific injury, he ached from the extra voltage he had received and the way his body curved against the cold wall wasn't helping at all.

After straightening himself up, it took Dib a minute to fully absorb where he was. This was mainly because he wasn't aware of just where he had run to the night before. When the UFO wallpaper and the horrible décor around him finally met his eyes he felt a shiver run down his spine.

He was in Zim's base. That in itself was no better than being in his father's laboratory.

Glancing around though, he noticed that he was alone in the living room. Zim was nowhere in sight and neither was his robot. Desperately, Dib tried to stand, so that maybe he could leave his enemy's clutches, but his knees caved beneath him. He cried out in soft pain, trying his best not to draw too much attention to himself.

Feeling rather dejected and hopeless, Dib found himself crawling on his stomach, clawing his way to the front door. Despite the pain, he found he was able to press on, that he contained a strange energy that never seemed to cease.

Tentatively Dib reached for the doorknob to release himself from his newest prison. It took several tries to grab it, but once he did Dib used it to force himself to stand. His body shook from the strain and for some reason he had the impression that he was standing lopsided somehow. Even so, he carefully turned the handle, ready to sprint away if he needed to.

What little hope Dib had left in him was silence by the booming of the sky and the pouring rain. It seemed that the storm had continued through the night and into the invisible dawn of morning. Dib couldn't shake the feeling that if he tried to escape he would surely die from the searing pain that followed. He could feel his hands shake at this realization, and he shut his eyes. Dib had done far too much crying that day to bawl in his enemy's base.

" Are you insane?"

Dib whipped around to face Zim, who was standing in the doorway only a few feet away from him. It wasn't an unusual question by any means, infact it was one of many that Dib had learned to ignore by that point in his life. Somehow though, hearing it from Zim made it stab just a little harder. Perhaps this was because Zim was the only thing that proved Dib's sanity, or maybe it was just because Zim was his enemy and he knew it would sting.

Whatever was whirring in Dib's mind was unknown to his nemesis. Zim stood with an annoyed glare painted on his undisguised face.

" Stupid human," He spat out. " You can barely stand and yet you're still trying to run away? Are you THAT frightened of me?"

Dib looked away, not out of fright but of sorrow. Everything in his life, if he could really call it that, seemed so petty and meaningless upon review, even fighting with Zim. It wasn't that he _wanted_ the world destroyed. That wasn't it…not really. Somehow though, he didn't feel he had the right to protect it anymore. Every vinegar-coated word that spilled from Zim's mouth dripped into his wounds, searing the pain even more.

" Don't…" Dib sad weakly, " …don't call me that."

" What? Stupid?" Zim asked, missing the point entirely. " But you are! You are! You are a stupid, _stupid_ human!"

Dib leaned against the doorframe, as though Zim's words had struck him repeatedly. Involuntarily he found himself sliding down to the floor, weakened by his despondence.

" No…" Dib whispered, feeling that his voice had been sucked away from him. " I'm not…I'm not a…"

Zim's antennae perked curiously at that statement. There was something wrong with the Dib-human, but he couldn't quite place what it was exactly. There was something different that day and it threatened to consume the both of them, for the unknown is often fearsome and menacing.

" Not a what?" Zim dared to ask.

Dib was quiet for a moment or so, as though he could longer bring himself to speak at all. He felt weak and defenseless in front of his longtime enemy, and yet he wasn't entirely sure if they still were.

" Human." Dib forced himself to speak, choking on unshed tears, " I'm not human."

" What are you talking about?" Zim snapped, " Of course you're human! Is there something wrong with your brainmeats?"

With those cold, accusing words Zim stepped closer to his archenemy. Somehow in his delusion he saw this as a form of attack, and Dib snapped his head up and quickly brought a feeble arm in front of his face to protect him.

" No! DON'T COME NEAR ME!" Dib shouted desperately.

He could feel the energy within him rising again and before he was even aware of it, blue electricity was whipping circles around his arm. It was still an unfamiliar feeling, so Dib sat almost in a fearful trance as it snake around his arm.

Zim had jumped back several feet. If he had been expecting anything, it wasn't that. From a distance he watched the electricity flow and waver. It looked nearly as strong as his electrical tongs, if not even stronger.

" I didn't think that humans could do _that_," Zim said in awe, as though he had misjudged his foe somehow.

" They can't," Dib managed to choke out. " Zim, I'm not…I'm not human."

Dib slowly began to explain his situation as the world slowly began to whirl and churn to a stop and time was a broken grandfather clock, ticking and tocking and raising tension, but never moving a second further. Zim listened with wide eyes, barely believing what he was hearing. It was hard to believe what he was seeing as well, the greatest threat to his mission sobbing like a smeet.

Such weakness had never been permitted in the Irken army. Zim could remember watching many young defectives being dragged off wailing their hearts out. Zim knew that those Irkens bled a little before being deactivated.

" And…and now I can't even stand in the rain!" Dib pulled on the doorframe, trying to force himself upright, " I'm so pathetic…"

Zim could neither deny this statement, nor feel sympathy for Dib. He was more focused on something else, something far more important than Dib's weary mind. Watching his enemy's moves carefully, he leaned against the wall. Zim peered on carefully as Dib struggled to stand.

" So…" Zim began, carefully treading on lines that he shouldn't cross, " your father…Membrane, I mean…he's after you?"

" Why would you care?" Dib snapped coldly.

By all normal means, Zim wouldn't care; he would never care it seemed. These were not normal means however. They were means that caused Zim to smile callously, and head for Dib once more.

They were means that made Dib squirm inside.

" Well, you _are_ my enemy," Zim pointed out.

Zim began to continue on, but before he could utter another word he was interrupted by chuckling from Dib. The sound Dib made was dry, empty, and almost completely devoid of bright colored emotion. His eyes were wide, even without his glasses, but somehow he seemed to be blind to the world around him, as though they were still necessary.

" Are we really, Zim?" He asked once the chuckles subsided, " Are we really enemies anymore?"

Zim was certain that he was not afraid of Dib, so he was unaware of why he was backing away from him. Once he felt his pak touch the wall though, he slowly became aware of just how potentially dangerous a situation he was in.

" After all," Dib said gravely, " I'm not human."

This fact had long become burned into his mind. Dib couldn't say that he was bitter toward the human race--not exactly--but he knew that he no longer belonged. Humans are naturally afraid of things they don't understand and that in itself creates paranoia. Dib knew he would never be able to walk through a crowd without wondering if they could see inside him, or even if he was somehow physically different from everyone else. In one night he lost the ability to fit seamlessly among people, even if they thought he was a little crazy. Realizing this fully, he knew there was only one thing he needed to do.

" And…I'm not staying," Dib said harshly. " I can't."

Dib knew it was a mistake as soon as he stepped out the open door and into the pouring rain. Screams and cries rang against the neighboring buildings as he fell to his knees once again. It was a mystery to him how he would be able to even get up and walk again.

That mystery became unimportant, as Zim quickly grabbed Dib by the collar and pulled him back inside. He slammed the door and turned around with all the rage of a demon bottled down forcibly.

Soaking wet and breathing heavily, Dib stared up at Zim and wodered where the sudden compassion had come from. Zim very well could have let him eat his words, but Zim saved him.

" You really are an idiot," Zim said. " If you stay out in the rain long enough, you would probably short circuit."

" …Why would you care?" Dib repeated his unanswered question.

Zim was surprisingly silent for a moment, trying to find the best possible answer. He immediately knew what answer he really was thinking of, but it wasn't one he could ever use.

" Well…what makes you think I was going to _let_ you go?" Zim replied.

Dib's eyes widened in a sudden fear, not of Zim, but what was to become of himself. Dib didn't like the direction they were veering in but he couldn't stop the car in time.

" Computer!" Zim shouted out to the ceiling. " Raise the defenses and make sure the Dib cannot escape!"

There was no response from the computer, but Dib heard various locks and latches click around the house. He forced himself to stand, so that he could limp over to the door and test it stubbornly. This didn't quite work the way he had been hoping though, for Dib stumbled and nearly fell. The only reason he didn't crash to the floor was because Zim grabbed his arm on the way down.

" Think about it, Dib," Zim spoke softly into Dib's ear. " Membrane won't find you here. Why would he even bother looking in _my_ base? However…"

Zim tightened his grip on Dib's arm, causing Dib to cry out from pain once again. To this Zim sneered.

" …should you decide to try and run away, I'll inform him of your whereabouts," Zim said, dropping Dib to the ground.

Dib groaned from the impact, but was quickly sitting back up on the floor.

" But that doesn't make any sense!" Dib protested, " You would be exposing yourself as well!"

" Would I?" Zim snickered, " He doesn't believe I'm an alien, remember? I'm just that foreign green boy."

Zim was right. Dib hated to admit it…but Zim was right. His fa-Professor Membrane would never believe that Zim was an alien. Dib's eyes met the floor, trying desperately to avoid Zim's.

" Now, there are three rules," Zim informed his captive. " One, you can't leave. That should be obvious though."

With each word Zim spoke, Dib felt walls being erected around him. What freedoms he had were slowly dwindling away and he felt his heart being crushed like a tin can.

" Two, you are only allowed in the upper layers of the house," Zim explained, " You are not, by ANY means, allowed in my labs. Understand?"

There was an extra anger in Zim's voice when he spoke of his labs. In the past few weeks he had upped the security on them so that Dib couldn't break in at all. Dib thought that it was a new project and was extremely curious and suspicious, but he could only nod and comply.

" Three," Zim finished, " you have to feed yourself. Don't worry about that though. GIR always bringing filthy Earth foods in here."

Zim grimaced at the thought of the sickening things that GIR brought home on a regular basis. The food was often disgusting and dripping with filthy sauces that Zim had no intention of forcing into his body, even if he could.

" Believe me Dib," Zim said honestly, " You're better off this way."

While Dib knew this, being trapped with Zim really didn't feel any different from being stuck out in the rain. Carefully, he hugged his knees to his chest, not bothering to get up off the floor. Dib gave no answer, but the message was clear. Zim was the last person he wanted to be with. He was alone in his misery, so he really wanted some solitary peace.

Somehow, Zim seemed to understand this. He walked out of the room without another word about it.

Once Dib was sure Zim had gone, he felt tears run down his face. Dib made sure not to sob out loud though, incase he was still lurking nearby. With those tears, he let Zim go.

Dib let everything go.

(A/N: Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews! I also happen to have something somewhat constructive to say here. This story is going to be rather interesting to write, because the situation here with Zim and Dib is the opposite of what it was in my other story, "Exactly What You Wanted". Instead of Zim being Dib's captive, it's the other way around. This should be a fun ride. : ) So please R&R and I'll try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible.)


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